Symphony to Conclude Season with a Flourish

The San Bernardino Symphony is offering another full evening of classical entertainment on May 23 with their “Triumphant Season Finale.” The concert will include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, and Richard Georg Strauss’ Horn Concerto No. 1 featuring virtuosic horn soloist Joseph Ognibene. “We wanted to honor the many requests we have received for a concert that focuses on the horns,” said Symphony Conductor and Artistic Director Frank Fetta. “Our on-going goal is to create a concert experience that engages the region’s diverse audiences in new and exciting ways, and I think audiences will be delighted with this event.” “The event will also include a few surprises, including a special preview of an educational publication being created about the Symphony and our beautiful principal venue, the California Theatre of the Performing Arts,” said Symphony Executive Director Dr. Anne Viricel. “We are so blessed to have this beautiful landmark building in which to perform. The architecture is amazing and it’s not uncommon to see people come into the lobby and just stand and gaze for a while. From the ornate golden flourishes on the staircase to the hand-painted trey ceilings and murals in the concert hall, this not-to-be-missed venue graces our community. So clearly we were, absolutely thrilled when San Bernardino Valley College Professor Judy Zak Jorgenson approached us with the concept to create an educational activity book highlighting the San Bernardino Symphony in our principal venue.” The talented young artist for the publication, student Jeremy Noble, will be at the May 23 concert working on the book’s venue-inspired artwork and concert attendees are welcomed to come and watch his process in the lobby at intermission. The Triumphant Season Finale concert, itself, will be full of surprises, as well, beginning with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor. Completed on July 25, 1788 and premiering throughout Germany in 1789 and 1790, this is was one of the composer’s final pieces and one of only two of his symphonies composed in a minor key. This work has elicited varying interpretations from critics. Some saw it as being a light, graceful piece, while others found it more in the character of an emotive opera. Almost certainly, however, the most common perception today is that the symphony is tragic in tone and intensely emotional, one critic calling the symphony "a work of passion, violence, and grief." Although interpretations differ, the symphony is unquestionably one of Mozart's most greatly admired works, and it is frequently performed and recorded. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 is another four-movement piece and was composed between 1811 and 1812 while the composer was recovering from some medical issues in a spa town in the Czech Republic. The Symphony actually premiered at a charity concert for wounded soldiers and Beethoven is said to have loved both the meaning and tone of the piece, passionately addressing the crowd before he conducted: "We are moved by nothing but pure patriotism and the joyful sacrifice of our powers for those who have sacrificed so much for us.” Symphony No. 7 was so well-received that the encore played at that opening concert was, in fact, the full second movement described by one critic thusly: “... the final movement zips along at an irrepressible pace that threatens to sweep the entire orchestra off its feet and around the theater, caught up in the sheer joy of performing one of the most perfect symphonies ever written.” The final piece, Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1, was written when the composer was 18 years old, but he already had literally a lifetime of performance experience. He had begun his study of music at age 6, and by age 8, he was attending the Royal School of Music as a violin student. At age 18, he premiered in his first formal concert performance, and he also began college that year, studying philosophy and art history. The focus was not fulfilling, however, and he dropped out of college a year later, taking a job as an assistant conductor and eventually taking over the position. Strauss loved composition, but recognized the skills of others as preeminent to his own, declaring in 1947 with characteristic self-deprecation, "I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer." The audience will have to make that determination following the masterful performance by featured horn player Joseph Ognibene. Ognibene, who began his studies in Los Angeles with Ralph Pyle and Vincent De Rosa, later went to Germany where he studied with Hermann Baumann and won third prize at the 1978 Prague Spring Competition. He has been principal horn of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra since 1981 and is also a founding member of the Reykjavik Wind Quintet. His work can be heard in countless CD recordings on the Chandos, BIS and Naxos labels. As a soloist Ognibene has appeared at numerous International Horn Society workshops. He has also been a member of the advisory council of the International Horn Society since 2008 and was elected vice president in 2012. “We are thrilled to provide this outstanding season full of beautiful art and music,” added Maestro Fetta. “This is such a fitting conclusion to what has been clearly one of our loveliest and most popular seasons.” The concert will be performed at the historic California Theatre, 562 W. 4th Street, San Bernardino. Tickets may be purchased by calling 909-381-5388 or visiting the Symphony box office at 198 N. Arrowhead Ave., San Bernardino. Tickets are also securely available on line at www.sanbernardinosymphony.org, and with limited availability at the theater box office the evening of each event. (Students: $10; General: $20, $35, $45, $55.)